"The story begins in 1946, when they dig Frankenstein’s monster out of a glacier, where he’d crawled after his Hollywood career had given up the ghost. Fully defrosted, he meets his match, a spark which ignites a love story of monstrous proportions, a duet of undateables who stand out and fit in and forge their own brutiful brand of domestic bliss in a small holding with their 67 (italian) blue sheep." - Big Telly.
I photographed this show just before its premiere at in the 2022 Belfast International Arts Festival.
Taking production stills is a tricky business. You're always in a dark inside venue with no windows or natural light coming in. The lighting, whilst apparently bright to our eyes is dim to a camera sensor. You've got to crank all the settings on your camera to get it looking close to how it looks to your eyes. Even then, it still takes a decent amount of post processing to get the best out the images.
Despite using all the gear on hand to get the best images, production stills will always show the weaknesses in your equipment and your ability.
You're asking alot of your equipment in this type of environment and you absolutely need skill to get the shot. When you're having to use high ISO, low shutter speed and wide open apertures you need to know what you're doing. This is one discipline where you're camera will not carry you.
These images were used to advertise the show during the Belfast Internation Arts Festival. Big Telly have just finished touring it for a short period in New York before returning it to Northern Ireland where it will show in The Lyric Theatre Belfast.
Thank you!